The Curious Case of Daood Gilani alias David Headley & co

Kati · Post by **Kati** » 08 Dec 2009 20:03

On NPR

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... =121178575

Check the audio file also

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 09 Dec 2009 02:52

Praveen Swami in Hindu

As Mumbai carnage unfolded, Headley planned next strike

As Mumbai carnage unfolded, Headley planned next strike

Praveen Swami

Temperamental Lashkar operative broke ranks with commanders to focus on attack in Europe
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He wanted to bomb offices of Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet

Headley’s arrest compelled Lashkar to drop its plan to attack National Defence College in Delhi

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NEW DELHI: Even as millions of people across the world watched the 2008 November carnage unfold in Mumbai, the Lashkar-e-Taiba secret agent who helped plan the massacre was preparing for another murderous attack.

Pakistani-American jihadist David Headley hoped to bomb the offices of Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten, whose publications of cartoons of Prophet Mohammad in 2005 offended many Muslims across the world.

Headley’s temperamental pursuit of what he called the “Mickey Mouse Project” led him to defy his Lashkar commanders, and undermined the jihadist group’s hopes of attacking the National Defence College here — forcing it to launch an alternative operation targeting the Indian High Commission in Dhaka that police in Bangladesh broke up last month.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s documents show Headley began planning the “Mickey Mouse Project” in October 2008 — just days before the 10-man Lashkar assault team used video footage he had gathered in five visits to Mumbai to stage an attack that claimed 163 lives.

That month, Headley initiated an e-mail correspondence on the “Mickey Mouse Project” with Abdul Rehman Hashim Syed, a former Pakistan Army officer, who had become a ranking Lashkar commander in charge of the terror group’s networks in Bangladesh.

During his first visit to Copenhagen in January 2009, Headley visited the offices of Jyllands Posten. He expressed an interest in purchasing advertising space, claiming to be a representative of the Chicago-based First World Immigration. First World’s owner, Tahawwur Rana, was an old school friend of Headley’s, and the firm provided him cover for his operations in Mumbai.

Later that year, Headley travelled to Pakistan at Syed’s invitation. Both are believed to have met with top Harkat ul-Jihad-e-Islami commander Illyas Kashmiri — an al-Qaeda linked jihadist, who is among Pakistan’s most-wanted men — at a training camp near Razmak, in Waziristan.

Headley reacted with ire to a May 4, 2009 post on a web group run by former students of his school in Pakistan, claiming that there was little support for al-Qaeda and the Taliban in the North West Frontier Province.

“The bazaar,” Headley wrote of his own visit, “is bustling with Chechens, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Russians, Bosnians, some from European Union countries and, of course, our Arab brothers. According to my [original emphasis] survey, the foreign population is a little less than a third of the total. Any Waziri or Mehsud I spoke to seemed grateful to God for the privilege of being able to host the Foreign Mujahideen.”

Early on, Headley believed the “Mickey Mouse Project” had the Lashkar’s support. Late this summer though, the Lashkar lost interest in the Danish plot. Lashkar commander Sajid Mir, who played a key role in organising the Mumbai attacks, e-mailed Headley on July 3, asking to meet with him to discuss “some new investment plans”: code, the FBI says, for an attack in India.

However, in correspondence that continued until late August, it became clear that Headley was focussed on the “Mickey Mouse Project.” Late in August, Headley promised Mir he would to travel to Pakistan to discuss the Indian operation — but pushed forward with his Danish project.

In July 2008, Headley flew to Copenhagen and carried out a second round of reconnaissance. He returned to the U.S. on August 5, and was interviewed at Atlanta airport by a customs official — a consequence, it is likely, of his past criminal record for smuggling narcotics. Headley told the authorities he was in Europe on business for Rana’s immigration firm. However, FBI documents record, a search of Headley’s luggage “revealed no papers, flyers or any documents for First World”.

Mir, worried at Headley’s silence during these weeks, sent an e-mail enquiring about his whereabouts on August 7. Syed was briefly detained by the Pakistani authorities during Headley’s European travels, and the Lashkar commander warned he might have betrayed Headley’s plans.

In an extended September 17, 2009 phone conversation with Syed, Headley railed against Lashkar leaders like Mir who, he asserted, had “rotten guts.” Instead of backing the “Mickey Mouse Project,” he complained, “their eyes are again in that direction [India]”. “I am just telling you,” he lectured Syed, “that the companies in your competition have started handling themselves in a far better way.”

FBI agents also heard a frustrated Headley tell a contact in Pakistan that “business must go on.” “I don’t care if I am working for Microsoft or for General Electric or Phillips,” Headley said, an elliptical reference to the fact that he was little concerned with allegiance to particular jihadist groups as long as they offered him a platform to carry out the attacks he wanted.

Headley’s arrest in September compelled the Lashkar to drop its plans to attack the National Defence College. Bangladesh-based Afghan jihad veteran Abdul Mutaliq was charged with organising an attack on the Indian High Commission in Dhaka, timed to coincide with the anniversary of the November 26 attacks. Police in Bangladesh held Mutaliq along with three Pakistani Lashkar operatives despatched by Syed last month, pre-empting the attacks.

Interesting that L-e-T has the resources to switch targets across countries! From New Delhi to IHC in Dhaka. There seem to be a distributed training and resource pool where the Tier 2 pick up/select the Tier 1s to carry out the attack. Off course Tier 3 facilitiate all this to claim plausible deniablity.

Rangudu · Post by **Rangudu** » 09 Dec 2009 03:30

I've figured out what could be the primary reason for this unnamed "LeT Member A" thing...

Not sure if this will be open source soon. Regardless, if my theory is true, then we should discard the whole "trial" in TSP of the so called Mumbai 7.

For those interested, here are some hints. Let's see BRF's "LeT IQ" level...

1. "LeT Member A" is almost surely Sajid Mir

2. Several serving and "recently retired" TSPA/ISI men were connected to the Headley/Rana gang that was handled by Mir

3. Mir's previous claim to fame was the Wille Brigitte case (France/Australia) where Brigitte testified that Mir led his "proteges" to training camps run by serving TSPA men

4. Mir is also a key handler of the 26/11 gang

Based on the above and any other relevant tidbits out in the open, come up with a theory on why Unkil is shielding Mir's identity.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 09 Dec 2009 03:35

Is he the liason to the TSPA?

Ananya · Post by **Ananya** » 09 Dec 2009 03:38

Ukil would not be shielding as that guy would not be a double agent , Unkil would want to use that as a bargaing chip to milk some
for the 2011 Surge stuff.

the point is this gilani guy is only 1 among the anothers. this guy seem to have gone to places if plotted vertically on the map of india to the left, there is a center and a right where the mapping may have occured or is occuring.

I hope HM is using the Data base expertise to fish them out

Rangudu · Post by **Rangudu** » 09 Dec 2009 03:39

ramana wrote:Is he the liason to the TSPA?

Close, but not quite. One more hint...

5. One of the few Western types familiar with Sajid Mir says that she cannot disclose the identity of Mir's immediate boss

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 09 Dec 2009 03:41

So Kiya Nahi was doing something?

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 09 Dec 2009 04:11

ramana wrote:So Kiya Nahi was doing something?

The first blast at Indian Embassy in Kabul also pointed to the top of PA.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 09 Dec 2009 04:18

I have no Let IQ - but google gives some raw data ...

Mir has relationship with -
Sheikhpura mein rahne wala Abdul Wajid (aka Zarar shah)
Pak refuse to give access to FBI for this guy (Abdul Wajid)
Pak refuse to give photo of this guy to India (to see if it is indeed zarar shah)

Some relationship with ...
al-Jamaat ul-Salafiyyatu lil-Dawati wal-Qitaal

Mir used finacier United Kingdom-'s Shahzad Ashraf.
who got Mony from Paris based abduls - Maradi Din Sheikh and Hussain Fazal.
Both of them are linked to Ghulam Mustafa Rama, a close friend of
Hafiz Mohammad Saeed ...

Rangudu · Post by **Rangudu** » 09 Dec 2009 04:26

Amber G. wrote:I have no Let IQ - but google gives some raw data ...
Pak refuse to give photo of this guy to India (to see if it is indeed zarar shah)

The above is another hint.

Now ask yourself the question - What types of person, whose identity could cause US a lot of takleef, if he is revealed to be "LeT member A"?

Ask the same question in the context of why Sajid Mir's "boss'" name cannot be disclosed publicly?

Then ask the question, "of all people who are caught planning major attacks on India post 26/11, who could cause most embarassment to US because Unkil assured India that this person was out of commission?"

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 09 Dec 2009 04:30

^^ but isn't that guy in Jail (making hoax calls to zaradari and stuff)?

Sarma · Post by **Sarma** » 09 Dec 2009 04:35

Is it Hamid Gul, who is supposed to be the General Sahib referred to in Kasab's conversations with his Paki handlers during siege.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 09 Dec 2009 04:38

Rangudu I give up. If you want to say it please say it.

I dont know who is out of commission for I believe they all are in commission regardless of who assures India unless one has seen them buried with own eyes. I prefer them to be cremated to ensure they dont turn up suddenly somewhere.

Satya_anveshi · Post by **Satya_anveshi** » 09 Dec 2009 04:46

Mushrat is my guess.

Rangudu · Post by **Rangudu** » 09 Dec 2009 04:54

Sorry, did not mean to be cryptic. Here it is.

1. "LeT Member A" = Sajid Mir - this part has been speculated already

2. Sajid Mir is a serving TSPA officer and is a living, breathing link between LeT and TSPA. This fact is also out in the open because that French judge revealed it in his book (ref. Willie Brigitte)

3. Western agencies have kept Mir's boss' identity classified because it is also a TSPA officer (a Brigadier, if my hunch is right - I'm still waiting for some sources to share their input on this)

4. Here's another dhamaka - Sajid Mir is actually the real identity of "Zarar Shah", the man with the thickest Punjabi accent in the Mumbai tapes

5. Sajid Mir is also likely the same person as Abu al Qama

6. TSP has passed off a low level goat named Abdul Wajid as "Zarar Shah" and this goat is being tried in the mock trials in Pindi

7. Syed Abdur Rehman, a.k.a Pasha, the "retired" TSPA Major named in yesterday's FBI affidavit is actually the same guy as HuJI's Bangladesh operations commander "Abdul Rehman Saeed." Remember that LeT and HuJI work together because HuJI has a stronger network via the pre-1971 Razakar connection in Bangladesh.

8. This Abdur Rehman also happens to be the saala of guess who - HuJI founder and another ex-TSPA man Qari Saifullah Akhtar. That is why Headley reached out to Rehman to get connected to Ilyas Kashmiri, who is Qari Saifullah's disciple and also a fellow ex-TSPA man

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Add all the above and see what inconvenient truths will come out if Sajid Mir's identity is revealed and he is questioned by the FBI. Unkil will be forced to admit, officially or via leaks that:

1. The key 26/11 facilitator and the man who was actually caught on tape directing the attacks - is a TSPA officer. Ergo, 26/11 is a GHQ sanctioned operation

2. TSPA is fooling everyone by putting dummies on trial and the men India was assured to have been "neutralized" were actually happily plotting new attacks

3. What we all believed always, that the place where LeT, HuJI, JeM, Mullah Omar etc. connect is the institution known as the TSPA. The fact that Sajid Mir and Abdul Rehman were caught working together provides proof for this. Remember that one step from Qari Saifullah is Mullah Omar. These are the guys who actually run the operations and know how the Osama/Zawahiri tapes reach Al Jazeera's Karachi office.

There is much much more, but let me get some more input on this from others before going further.

Ananya · Post by **Ananya** » 09 Dec 2009 05:08

briliant analysis

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 09 Dec 2009 05:10

How did Headley know he has to go to this "Pasha"? And who tasked him to change his name from Daoud Gilani to David Headley in 2005?

BTW, step 7 could account for close links of BD terrorists to LeT attacks in India. Because same guy is coordinating both attackers.

Rangudu · Post by **Rangudu** » 09 Dec 2009 05:14

ramana wrote:How did Headley know he has to go to this "Pasha"? And who tasked him to change his name from Daoud Gilani to David Headley in 2005?

Mir is the conduit. Mir is the one who asked Daoud to change names. He is the one who asked Headley to identify Jewish targets and practice behaving like a Jewish person to not arouse suspicion during recon missions.

The Hierarchy is clear - Mir is the operational chief and he ran the show like a COO of the group.

The intercepts hint that "LeT member A" was the man who put Headley in touch with Pasha.

Ananya · Post by **Ananya** » 09 Dec 2009 05:17

deleted as i am spilling garbage

negi · Post by **negi** » 09 Dec 2009 05:26

And where do these monkies fit in ?

Major (retarded) Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed.

Lashakr-e-Taiba’s head for Bangladesh, Sheikh Saeed.

Btw web says Mir is "Lashkar-e-Taiba’s director of transnational operations"

Now I know why the sudden urge to do IED muparak near TSPA facilities, and didn't we hear about an assassination attempt on a certain Brigadier ?

Rangudu · Post by **Rangudu** » 09 Dec 2009 05:29

Negi,

Please read my post above carefully.

Major Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed is the same person as Abdul Rehman Saeed or Sheikh Saeed a.k.a HuJI's Bangladesh ops head.

Patni · Post by **Patni** » 09 Dec 2009 05:29

Serving officers in Pak Army linked to 26/11?

Rajeev Deshpande, TNN 9 December 2009, 12:34am IST
ON BOARD AIR INDIA ONE: The FBI team that visited India in the wake of the arrest of Lashkar-e-Taiba terror duo David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana has not only provided their links to the 26/11 attacks but also contacts with figures in Pakistan, including, possibly, serving officers of Pakistani army.

Speaking to journalists on the way back from Moscow, foreign secretary Nirupama Rao said India would be "naturally" keen to interrogate Rana and Headley. "I believe the FBI has given incriminating evidence and there are links to conspirators in Pakistan," said Rao.

Meanwhile in Delhi, sources in the government indicated that FBI has provided details of the involvement of serving officers of Pakistan army in the 26/11 plot. They also said that Mumbai police would file a supplementary chargesheet in the 26/11 case naming Headley. If the US indicts Rana in the 26/11 case, India will include his name as well in the chargesheet.

India's complaint that Pakistan is not doing enough to bring the perpetrators of 26/11 to book is shared by the Russians. This is reflected in the India-Russia joint statement as well with the two sides noting that nations must act on the "prosecute or extradite" principle in dealing with terrorists. There is also mention of respecting UN resolutions on specific outfits -- read LeT -- that have been declared as terrorist organizations.

Apart from Ajmal Kasab, Headley is another 26/11 accused in police custody in a country other than Pakistan. His role has emerged as more central to the attack on Mumbai than that of Fahim Ansari and Sabauddin, two other accused in Indian custody.

The US will certainly ask for the extradition of retired Pakistan army major Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, who, according to the FBI chargesheet, was arrested in Pakistan earlier this year, but subsequently released.

The FBI team that was in New Delhi left for Pakistan on Monday.

Until now, the FBI had not been permitted access to the 7 Pakistanis charged for the 26/11 attack in Pakistan. So its difficult to guess whether Pakistan will give any access to Rehman. According to sources, Pakistan's stock response has been that since he's retired, they had no control over Rehman's movements.

It has to be remembered that Ilyas Kashmiri of HuJI, who allegedly worked closely with the LeT and Headley on the Mumbai attacks, was once a commander in Pakistan's elite Special Services Group.

According to sources familiar with the workings of the ISI, mid-level army officers are regularly "retired" and seconded off to the ISI, so the army can maintain plausible deniability if things go wrong.

Patni · Post by **Patni** » 09 Dec 2009 05:39

FBI probing ex-Army major’s terror links

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

By Amir Mir

LAHORE: The American intelligence sleuths stationed in Pakistan are trying to ascertain whether Abdur Rehman, alias Pasha, a retired major of the Pakistan Army, who has recently been named by the FBI as a key link between the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack suspect David Headley and his Lashkar-e-Taiba handlers, is the brother-in-law of Qari Saifullah Akhtar, the absconding Ameer of the pro-Taliban Pakistani Jehadi group Harkatul Jehadul Islami (HUJI).

Rehman has been charged in a Chicago court by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) on allegations of conspiring terrorist attacks in association with Headley, a US national of Pakistani-origin, who is already in the FBI’s custody.

According to diplomatic circles in Islamabad, the American intelligence sleuths are trying to determine if Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed is the same person who had filed a petition in the Supreme Court on October 12, 2004, challenging the arrest of Qari Saifullah Akhtar and seeking his production in the apex court.

The petitioner had also sought a court order to prevent possible deportation of Qari Saifullah, his brother-in-law, to another country. The petition was thrown out on January 18, 2005. Qari Saifullah Akhtar, the Ameer of the Pakistan chapter of the HUJI, who had been arrested in 1995 for conspiring to topple the second government of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, had been named by the slain PPP leader in her posthumous book -- Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West - as a principal suspect in the October 18, 2007 attempt on her life in Karachi.

Considered close to Afghan Taliban chief Mulla Omar, Qari Saifullah was arrested after his failed coup attempt in 1995, before being freed under mysterious circumstances in 1996 soon after the premature dismissal of the Bhutto government. He had subsequently traveled to Afghanistan, only to become an adviser to Mulla Omar on political affairs.

Before the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the HUJI had got membership among the Taliban cabinet as three Taliban ministers and 22 judges belonged to it. Qari was one of the few Jehadi leaders who had escaped with Mulla Omar after the Allied Forces invaded Afghanistan in October 2001.

He first took shelter in the South Waziristan Agency, then moved to Peshawar and eventually fled to Saudi Arabia, from where he decided to move to the UAE. Three years later, on August 6, 2004, Qari Saifullah was arrested by the UAE authorities and handed over to the Pakistani agencies. The arrest came after revelations during investigations of the December 2003 twin suicide attacks on Musharraf that he had been executing terrorist operations in Pakistan with the help of his men there.

Instead of trying to prosecute and convict him after his arrest, the authorities chose to keep him under detention for the next two years and nine months, without filing any criminal charges against him. However, a few months before Benazir’s return home, he was released, before being arrested again in February 2008 following Benazir’s claim of his involvement in the Karachi bombing and the subsequent pressure created by the world community. But he was released on May 21, 2007 for lack of evidence.

Pakistan Army Spokesman Major General Athar Abbas refused to either confirm or deny that Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed was actually a former major of the Pakistan Army. Same was the case with the interior ministry spokesman who was of the view that the Pakistani authorities would investigate the matter and ascertain the identity of Abdur Rehman if and when officially asked by the American FBI.

According to the 42-page FBI charge sheet, Abdur Rehman coordinated with Ilyas Kashmiri, the chief of the Azad Kashmir chapter of the Harkatul Jehadul Islami (HUJI) and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, an operative of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) to commit terrorist acts involving murder and maiming outside the US, and conspired within and outside the US to provide material support to that conspiracy.

David Headley, already arrested on October 3, 2009, has been charged with criminal conspiracy in the Mumbai terror attacks and having links with Abdur Rehman who liaised between him and terror groups including LeT and HUJI.

The charges filed in the federal court in Chicago said Headley, 49, conducted extensive surveillance of targets in Mumbai for more than two years preceding 26/11, and supplied pictures and videotapes of targets to the attackers.

Patni · Post by **Patni** » 09 Dec 2009 05:50

From the way the stories are leaked in to media as of on a schedule with FBI team in pak now shows close co-ordination between Unkil and Indian state and it seems to me that things are moving towards Unkil openly naming TSPA and calling their Double Game! I did found it strange that CIA is not in picture at all with whole Headley/Rana case and to me it looks like its deliberate on part of Unkil as CIA has traditionally closer bond with ISI and TSPA top brass! Seems all those plants in news through officials about Headley cooperating with investigation might be signal to TSPA of some sort and who knows all those IED celebrations that target known ISI offices is an attempt at destroying links/trails to protect TSPA! what better excuse then oh the records are all destroyed by terror bombings.

Patni · Post by **Patni** » 09 Dec 2009 06:40

Suspected planner of Mumbai attack to be arraigned

By: MIKE ROBINSON
Associated Press
12/08/09 11:49 AM PST
CHICAGO — A Chicago man charged with helping to plan the terrorist attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai that left 166 dead will appear in court on Wednesday to respond to the charges, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
David Coleman Headley, 49, is due to appear before U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber for arraignment at 10:45 a.m.
Headley was charged Monday with conducting surveillance on locations around Mumbai that later became the targets of bloody attacks blamed on members of the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The group, whose name means Army of the Pure, is an outgrowth of decades of friction between Pakistan and India over the disputed territory of Kashmir. Lashkar-e-Taiba has been outlawed in Pakistan and designated by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization.
Headley, an American of Pakistani descent, was arrested in Chicago in October and was charged with plotting to attack the Jyllands Posten newspaper in Denmark. The newspaper had published 12 cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in 2005 that set off protests in much of the Muslim world.
Unlike his co-defendant in that case, Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana, Headley has not yet appeared in court.
Rana's attorney, Patrick Blegen, has been attempting to get his client freed on bond. He says Rana appears to be an honest businessman who was duped by Headley.
Headley's attorneys, John Theis and Robert Seeder, have refused to comment on the charges.
A Virginia woman whose husband and 13-year-old daughter were killed in the Mumbai attacks said in a statement Monday that she was grateful U.S. authorities brought charges against Headley.
"My hope is that Headley cooperates fully and discloses all information to aid in the investigation," said the statement from Kia Scherr, whose husband, Alan, had gone to Mumbai to scout locations for a meditation retreat.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 09 Dec 2009 06:53

Rangudu - This seems to support your theory:

The officials declined to name the other former military officer in the case, who is suspected as a co-conspirator. He is said to have recently left the Pakistani Army and held the rank of colonel or brigadier general, higher ranks than Mr. Kashmiri held.
Prosecution documents in the case said that the officer was arrested earlier this past summer in Pakistan on unspecified charges and later released. However, another official said that the officer was discharged only after his associates pressured the Pakistani authorities to free him.
....
.. said that Pakistani authorities had arrested as many as five other people in connection with the plot in recent weeks, including some former or current Pakistani military officials.

from nytimes: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/world ... .html?_r=1

See also recent nytimes piece:
Accused Terrorist Bridged Two Different Worlds

From this:

He has Pakistani wife and four children. A neighbor says they moved into a three-story apartment building about a year ago...

Gagan · Post by **Gagan** » 09 Dec 2009 08:09

Could those colonels and brigadiers getting bumped off in Pakistan recently be part of this? The pakistani establishment ridding itself of those who were compromised? They knew Headley was in custody.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 09 Dec 2009 09:06

X-post..

We are trying to get every scrap of info on Headley into this thread in hopes some genius can figure out the connections...

Malayappan wrote:WSJ Piece on Headley but with many other references Terror Suspect Failed a Test , Cam Simpson and Siobhan Gorman, The Wal Street Journal, Dec 9, 2009

Excerpts -
Westerners have largely played supporting roles in terror activities, but Mr. Headley's ability to travel freely on a U.S. passport to Pakistan, India and Denmark gave him high value, a U.S. law enforcement official said.

"It's exactly the way you'd think al Qaeda would want to use operatives," said Evan Kohlmann, who has testified on Lashkar as an expert witness in U.S. and British courts.

Pakistan-based Lashkar has traditionally been focused on the Kashmir region, which Pakistan and India have fought over for decades. But U.S. counterterrorism officials now believe the group's ambitions are global.

There are pockets of Lashkar supporters in the U.S., including San Diego and Northern Virginia, as well as cities in Florida and in the Northeast, say current and former counterterrorism officials

Christopher Paul, a bomb-making expert who pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to bomb U.S. and other targets, discussed attending camps in Pakistan with a senior Lashkar recruiter, and later wrote to a fellow American about the ease of training with the group.

Rangudu · Post by **Rangudu** » 09 Dec 2009 09:16

Ramana

Not sure what you are hinting at, but what other connections to Headley are you thinking about?

We can be sure that Unkil will not let the full story come out because this is too inconvenient and comes at a time when they need TSPA to GUBO elsewhere.

If anything, TSPA may make a deal on the Haqqani/Omar side and all of a sudden Headley might make a plea bargain and court records sealed for good.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 09 Dec 2009 09:35

On a lighter note, Daily Show was about Headley..

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 09 Dec 2009 09:35

Rangadu, When the story first came I wanted someone to do a connectivity diagram of all the names coming up.

Malayappan had posted his post in the Pak global terrorism thread. So I x-posted and gave the reason.

What you say might be the end effect.

Rangudu · Post by **Rangudu** » 09 Dec 2009 09:55

Ramana

Okay, I can help with that. Let's see, so far we have the following names Headley, T.Rana, Major (r) Syed Abdul Rehman, Ilyas Kashmiri, Sajid Mir, Major Basit - all in the indictment or thereabouts.

We also have the "big picture" names like Kayani, Pasha (ISI DG), Hafiz Saeed

Who else?

Malayappan · Post by **Malayappan** » 09 Dec 2009 09:56

Small note of explanation for the post in that thread rather this one -
- Did not want to derail the line of discussion in the previous few posts
- There was little incremental knowledge directly related to the Headley case in that piece
- Some useful citable stuff linking pakistan in that piece

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 09 Dec 2009 10:10

Serving PA officers linked to 26/11

Meanwhile in Delhi, sources in the government indicated that FBI has provided details of the involvement of serving officers of Pakistan army in the 26/11 plot.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 09 Dec 2009 12:13

Rangudu wrote: 4. Here's another dhamaka - Sajid Mir is actually the real identity of "Zarar Shah", the man with the thickest Punjabi accent in the Mumbai tapes

Rangudu, my hunch is Sajid Mir is Zaki-ur-Rehman-Lakhvi (aka Rehman 'chacha'). He has been always referred to as 'Chief of Operations (COO)' in literature.

Rangudu · Post by **Rangudu** » 09 Dec 2009 12:17

SSridhar wrote:Rangudu, my hunch is Sajid Mir is Zaki-ur-Rehman-Lakhvi (aka Rehman 'chacha'). He has been always referred to as 'Chief of Operations (COO)' in literature.

Plausible but unlikely in my opinion.

Lakhvi is less important than Mir based on experts I've been talking to. Mir is LeT's international operations chief, whereas Lakhvi is one of the original commanders and has the right genes i.e. he is from a maulvi family and fought in the original jihads.

Mir is more important for India because he is the Khalid Sheikh Mohammad of LeT. There hasn't been a single successful or thwarted LeT plot since 2002 in which Sajid Mir was not a key figure.

sum · Post by **sum** » 09 Dec 2009 12:33

According to sources familiar with the workings of the ISI, mid-level army officers are regularly "retired" and seconded off to the ISI, so the army can maintain plausible deniability if things go wrong.

Atleast GoI isnt buying the BS being peddled by the Pakis about tonloads of "retired" officers virtually running the LeT.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 09 Dec 2009 13:45

Rangudu wrote:5. Sajid Mir is also likely the same person as Abu al Qama

Rangudu, there had been earlier reports that one of the seven accused in Adiala for 26/11, Mazhar Iqbal, has the nickname Al Qama and was the chief handler of the 26/11, possibly one of the voices heard during the conversations between terrorists and TSP.

James B · Post by **James B** » 09 Dec 2009 16:52

How David Headley was caught

Deceptive answers about his travels abroad to an airport inspector proved to be the undoing of Pakistani American terror suspect David Headley, charged with helping to plan the Mumbai terror attacks, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Federal authorities, already suspicious of Headley, used his return to the US in August as an opportunity, the US daily said citing unnamed officials.

A border inspector asked Headley about his overseas travel, according to court records and people familiar with the case, it said.

Headley said he was working for a company called First World Immigration Service. First World is a business that allegedly provided Headley with cover as he travelled to scout terrorist targets for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group responsible for the November 2008 assault in Mumbai, according to the federal charges.

Agents searched Headley's luggage and found it "contained no papers or other documents relating to such a business", the Journal said citing court documents. They also searched tax records and found no record of income paid to Headley by the company, court records show.

Patni · Post by **Patni** » 09 Dec 2009 17:14

Headley planned synchronised attacks on Jewish houses in India

Press Trust Of India
Mumbai, December 09, 2009
First Published: 16:51 IST(9/12/2009)
Last Updated: 17:01 IST(9/12/2009)
The last visit of American terror suspect David Headley, before being arrested by the FBI, to India in March this year was to finalise synchronised terror strikes on Jewish houses located in five cities at the instance of terror outfit Lashker-e-Taiba.

Piecing together the travel trail of Headley during his visit to India in March this year, security agencies, who were briefed by FBI and US Department of Justice officials in New Delhi recently, are understood to have concluded that the US terror suspect was scouting only the Jewish targets including the El Al airlines office in Mumbai.

Headley, born to a Pakistani father and whose earlier name was Daood Gilani, has been charged by the FBI for conspiring in the audacious Mumbai attack of last year which left over 160 dead including six foreigners. On the Indian side, the National Investigating Agency (NIA), which was formed in the aftermath of 26/11, was probing the role of Headley and his Pakistani-Canadian accomplice Tahawwur Rana.

Sources privy to the investigations said that Headley had carried out reconnaissance of Israeli airlines -- El AI--office located at Cuffe Parade in March this year before moving to the national capital where he chose to stay in a small hotel at Pahargunj area.

Very quickly, the security agencies carried out the recce of the area and found a Chabad House, barely 300 metres from the hotel -- De Holiday Inn.

The Chabad House in Pahargunj, Delhi is located in narrow lanes and is frequented generally by backpackers from Israel while either going to Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh or to western parts of the country.

The sources said Headley also visited the house and posed as Jew while carrying out his reconnaissance mission for terror group Lashker.

Statements of a few have been recorded by the NIA, the sources said.

From Delhi, Headley travelled to Pushkar in the outskirts of Ajmer in Rajasthan where he insisted on a room opposite a Jewish prayer centre claiming he was a Jew and wanted "holy sight".

The hotel staff, in their statements to the NIA, said that 48-year-old Headley had insisted on the room view which was right opposite to the prayer hall of the Jew centre in Pushkar.

After staying there for three days, Headley moved to Goa where he stayed at a guest house located in Anjuna village along the coast of Arabian sea before proceeding towards Pune where he recced the area around Koregaon Park.

Though initially it was believed that he wanted to target the foreigners coming to the Osho Ashram, it was found later that he had scouted the area for targeting the Jewish prayer centre in the area.

Headley later left for Mumbai where he again went to the Cuffe Prade area and apparently firmed up some loose ends in targeting the Israel Airways office before flying to Pakistan from the Chatrapati Shivaji airport.